Corruption in gaming journalism discussion and update thread. - General

[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2js9b4/separate_yourself_from_gamergate_if_you_truly/]"Separate yourself from Gamergate if you truly care about ethics. Prove you're one of the good guys." - Get ready for the next wave of Shilling[/url]. [quote]Like the title says, we are about to see a new wave of shilling come in. They are going to say things like "You seem to actually care about ethics, but #Gamergate doesn't. Distinguish yourself as one of the good guys." Make no mistake, this is Gamer+ in hiding. "If you care about woman's rights, you'll start a new movement and separate yourself from the harassment." Seems reasonable right? How can you not be for woman's rights? They've tried it before but this time they are going to act like you're 'different' from the rest of gamergate. They are going to try and make you feel special to get you to start a 'real' movement. This is divide and conquer all over again. At the same time, we are seeing "Gamergate is over" articles. They are pushing this out there to try and discourage people and get them to leave. They want you to think people are falling for Gamer+ and that you should too if you want to stay relevant. All we need to do is ignore them. Expect some other tactics headed our week this way as well. Last week was actually good for us, so now they want are going to try and push us back. All we need to do is stay the course, continue to send out those emails, and refrain from taking the bait or touching the poop. Godspeed! [/quote]

Just look at Athiesm+ and how quick it died out. I dont think I need to worry about that but maybe the more easily impressed people might need a reminder of history.

While I understand what's driving GG, I can't see it ending, even if all the news outlets decided to cooperate. For you guys, what could Kotaku, Polygon, RPS, etc. do tomorrow that would show us that we don't need GG anymore? What are we still unhappy about their previous change in ethics guidelines. I hope someone could answer these for me.

[QUOTE=sp00ks;46287683]it's just funny that everyone gets their panties in a bunch of quite small indie game instead of, you know, actual "corruption" by industry giants.[/QUOTE] People are always mad with the giants. Almost every AAA release gets shat on pretty quickly for what people feel amounts to shoddy work and complain about IGN's latest 10/10 score. When people think about the indie scene they generally think it's free from all of that garbage. Everyone had their favorite devs and thought they could engage with them through social media and so forth and now we're finding out a lot of them haven't been playing fair. That's more of a betrayal than boobiesoft trying to lock games at 30fps because the indie scene is really unforgiving for a lot of these devs. Entering the IGF and coming out with nothing would suck. Losing because you weren't in the right social circles or without your game ever being touched is even worse. That might amount to someone's dreams being crushed permanently if they're just starting out. Also, while the big companies are pretty blatantly corrupt, they're usually pretty smart about doing stuff that's shady but legal. These smaller fries don't exactly have the legal teams EA or NYT do, so their mistakes are turning out to be more obvious and more questionable. If someone calls out some of EA's bullshit their PR is usually pretty good about only indirectly insulting their users' intelligence with technobabble or 'aesthetic choices' where as a lot of the people in the indie scene jump straight to flaming or character assassination

journalists are shaking in their boots! [url]https://vine.co/v/ObjvMIrLxmn[/url]

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/BFcfFr8.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=sp00ks;46287505]how come all this corruption in gaming journalism talk didn't start before, when it's been pretty obvious that large companies have been paying (or at the very least bribing with goods and services) for good reviews forever?[/QUOTE] People generally thought the independent game scene was mostly immune to this. The revelation that no only is there collusion there but also between journalists is what really blew it up. Keeping the fuel on the fire is the constant PR blunders by said journalists/journalism outlets and perceptions of a black and white pro/anti GG e-war. Had everyone just kept their mouth shut ala the big boys then this story would have died awhile ago and we would just be ignoring individual sites and developers. The "Gamers are Dead" wave of articles that suddenly appeared and drove almost word for word the same narrative across dozens of websites over a 24 hour period is what really pushed this over the edge. [QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;46287816]People have been getting mad at the corruption on the AAA level for years. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=1legmidget;46288167]People are always mad with the giants. Almost every AAA release gets shat on pretty quickly for what people feel amounts to shoddy work and complain about IGN's latest 10/10 score.[/QUOTE] Sure, people got generally mad and cracked jokes about it but there was never this concentrated outrage over what is unarguably far more expensive and influential corruptions within the games industry. I think it's a fair observation. I think GamerGate is fine on it's own but I do wish some of the more hardworking, creative people of the movement could also invest their energies into spreading word about just how blatant the wining and dining of journalists by publishers and developers is. [QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;46287816]Also, [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation"]fallacy of relative privation[/URL].[/QUOTE] Not necessarily. It's only a fallacy if sp00ks said something like "You shouldn't worry about this because X". Instead he merely observed the disparity between years of documented corruption and GamerGate.

So wait a sec, someone else writes what Anita says on her youtube channel?

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/3zEnhTJ.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Wii60;46288570]Gawker[/QUOTE] If absolutely nothing else, gamergate has shown how absolutely despicable individuals representing Gawker at the highest echelons are. I long ago filed them away as clickbait blogs-as-news garbage but I never would have assumed they actually harbored downright horrible people.

Editor in chief of destructoid steps down [url]http://allmannerofnerdery.tumblr.com/post/100526443850/im-leaving-destructoid[/url]

im really curious, with those companies backing out with their partnership with Gawker, is it true? well thinking about it right now theyll definitely get backlash if they are literally lying to our faces. im just thinking that would they really pull back due to a few measly emails or something? i am not saying that emailing them and shit is a bad thing, i dont really know what to do since ive only been spectating regarding gg anyway. im just worried that all these stuff would all be for naught.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;46288573]Sure, people got generally mad and cracked jokes about it but there was never this concentrated outrage over what is unarguably far more expensive and influential corruptions within the games industry. I think it's a fair observation. I think GamerGate is fine on it's own but I do wish some of the more hardworking, creative people of the movement could also invest their energies into spreading word about just how blatant the wining and dining of journalists by publishers and developers is.[/QUOTE]But again, people have been. Its not a new thing, people have been complaining for years about obviously unethical practices of the AAA scene and the complicit nature of journalists. [QUOTE]Not necessarily. It's only a fallacy if sp00ks said something like "You shouldn't worry about this because X". Instead he merely observed the disparity between years of documented corruption and GamerGate.[/QUOTE]It would actually fall in to the "whataboutery" section at the end of the article.

Yeah, people complained. I'd hardly compare complaining to what gamergate has now become. Though again part of this is fueled by the fact that the employees at this "journalism" sites aren't nearly as intelligent as their EA and Ubisoft counterparts.

[QUOTE=Sad.;46288765]im really curious, with those companies backing out with their partnership with Gawker, is it true? well thinking about it right now theyll definitely get backlash if they are literally lying to our faces. im just thinking that would they really pull back due to a few measly emails or something? i am not saying that emailing them and shit is a bad thing, i dont really know what to do since ive only been spectating regarding gg anyway. im just worried that all these stuff would all be for naught.[/QUOTE] Companies don't profit from sponsorship and have nothing to gain and everything to lose from continuing to partner with these sites, so they're generally more than happy to withdraw sponsorship if consumers demand it.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;46288808]Yeah, people complained. I'd hardly compare complaining to what gamergate has now become. Though again part of this is fueled by the fact that the employees at this "journalism" sites aren't nearly as intelligent as their EA and Ubisoft counterparts.[/QUOTE]That's a major part of it as I said. They all went absolutely nuts and immediately went on the offensive. If they had just started the whole thing with, "Ehh, this happened, its not a big deal, carry on." People probably wouldn't have given it much thought. But their ridiculous and frankly unprovoked response prompted people to go, "Now hold on a minute. Where the hell did this come from? What's going on behind that curtain?" It was their behavior right out of the gate that caused people to get suspicious and decide to investigate them further.

[QUOTE=Sad.;46288765]im really curious, with those companies backing out with their partnership with Gawker, is it true? well thinking about it right now theyll definitely get backlash if they are literally lying to our faces. im just thinking that would they really pull back due to a few measly emails or something? i am not saying that emailing them and shit is a bad thing, i dont really know what to do since ive only been spectating regarding gg anyway. im just worried that all these stuff would all be for naught.[/QUOTE] People didn't just complain in a vacuum. They linked to various idiotic stuff spewed by Gawker and Co. Advertisers then made an informed decision.

On the topic of Dale North: Make sure that people you talk to understand to treat him well. For starters, he seems to have hinted that he may be sympathetic, or at least he doesn't condone the actions of the others at Destructoid. But he never stated it outright, so don't go claiming him as a supporter when he hasn't said that. Second, acting like dicks or gloating about it and trying to drag him in to more shit will not look good for anyone. Basically, just tell everyone to wish him well. Its exactly what I did. [img]http://u.cubeupload.com/Coldmute/BszfpE.png[/img]

[QUOTE=Sad.;46288765]im really curious, with those companies backing out with their partnership with Gawker, is it true? well thinking about it right now theyll definitely get backlash if they are literally lying to our faces. im just thinking that would they really pull back due to a few measly emails or something? i am not saying that emailing them and shit is a bad thing, i dont really know what to do since ive only been spectating regarding gg anyway. im just worried that all these stuff would all be for naught.[/QUOTE]Think of it this way: Advertising on game journalism sites used to be completely "safe". You're advertising to an audience with disposable income and interests all over the place. You can put up ads for cars, magazines, gizmos, shirts, DVDs... hell, Bad Dragon probably could have jumped in at strategic areas with little fuss and some gain. True, gaming culture has had scandals before, but they were all [i]contained[/i]. If something goes sour with a game or game-person, no one is going to look badly upon Toyota because their truck was in the sidebar of an article about it. Then this circus happened. Let us be very clear here: All of this, [i]allllll of this[/i] could have been avoided. There was a stage where open conversation - and simple apologies here and there - could have left this as a standard media event which fizzled out within a week. But that didn't happen, and it didn't stop. Trying to push it down only increased the pressure, and it escalated. And escalated. And escalated. It outlasted Destiny, the supposed prodigal child of gaming. Smash Brothers didn't smash it one bit. Gamers were declared dead, but somehow their ghosts carried on. And then it escalated far past what damn near anyone could have thought; to [i]multinational mainstream media[/i]. Can you imagine being an advertiser, and getting flooded with emails telling you to pick a side immediately (and immediately be boycotted by the other side regardless of choice) when all you wanted was to sell some of your products on a "safe" site? Can you imagine realizing that your money is going into people saying that your intended audience are terrorists on the evening news? And your intended audience replying that the people you're giving money to are corrupt assholes? Can you imagine overhearing that another respected advertiser, Intel, was [i]attacked with a slanderous hate campaign created by those they were paying[/i] when they decided to terminate their contract? Can you imagine all of this going on for months, overshadowing everything else in the industry? And other industries? It actually jockeying for time with [i]fucking ebola[/i] in the worldwide public's eye? Setting all of the moral quandaries aside, setting pro and anti and everything in-between, advertising on game journalism websites is now [b]toxic[/b]. It is not a matter of if you should pull out, it is a matter of how you can pull out with the least amount of damage. It is objectively in the best interests of most of them to just let existing contracts run out, then walk away forever.

more kotaku bs [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/UnhRQ6W.png[/IMG] [url]https://archive.today/52Vx2[/url]

i'm not going to get tired until i see you begging on the streets for change, totilo [editline]20th October 2014[/editline] the entirety of kotaku shouldn't have a job in this industry.

The only thing I'm tired of is the bullshit.

Person with a vested interest in containing [thing] writes editorial about how "everyone" is tired of [thing] on his website that is one of the prime targets of [thing].

[QUOTE=Raidyr;46289458]Person with a vested interest in containing [thing] writes editorial about how "everyone" is tired of [thing] on his website that is one of the prime targets of [thing].[/QUOTE] Hold on there mister, the unnamed gamersgate supporter said he was tired of it to him, so we should be too!

if I ever read tweets that were not posted here I would be tired too I just dont have the patience for that BS.

Well there is a reason some people a tired and exhausted. GGers are constantly digging. Collecting evidence, spamming advertisers, arguing, promoting the thing, organizing and participating in streams, sometimes two or more in a row. Doing a lot of shit, and that's beside their everyday lives, jobs, families etc. Gaming 'journalists', on the other hand, shouldn't be tired. They whine and spew bullshit, and that also coincides with their job, if one can call it that even.

The cat edits are getting better and better [IMG]https://8chan.co/v/src/1413851205042.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=nomad1;46288582]So wait a sec, someone else writes what Anita says on her youtube channel?[/QUOTE] yes.

[QUOTE=nomad1;46288582]So wait a sec, someone else writes what Anita says on her youtube channel?[/QUOTE] Not just on her channel. Anita's twitter account has some tweets that are worded [I]very[/I] similarly to ones made by Jonathan McIntosh.

I think it's becoming increasingly clear that FF is actually McIntosh's brain-child and that Anita doesn't have nearly as big as a role in it as you'd think. The whole thing seems to be a scheme to paint himself as a great progressive thinker that enlightens the unwashed masses with his "activism". He's pretty much an overgrown know-it-all high school student, as if his writing style didn't give it away. Of course, he also wants a good amount of money out of it, like everyone would.